AMELIA BOWMAN

I learnt collagraphy almost by accident while working in secondary art education in 2006. I watched as students were shown a smattering of techniques by a guest tutor and was intrigued. Given that a collagraph plate can be made with relatively unremarkable materials I thought I’d go down that route although I didn’t have access to a press which presented an obvious problem. My solution was to convert a somewhat decrepit mangle but it was a solution that has endured to this day!

In those days I was regularly to be found sketching on the Suffolk coast and began to covert my coastal sketches into collagraph plates. The coast is in my blood with a Cornish Father and so such inspiration was easy to take. My Mother is an artist as was my Grandmother and Great Grandmother so I doubt I could have escaped a creative career if I had tried but of all my creative endeavours, it is printmaking that has stuck.

A country girl at heart I have returned to my roots taking much of my current inspiration from all things rural fed by a blissful upbringing in character properties surrounded by tranquil, beautiful nature.'